WORD FOR THE DAY: PAN-HOOT

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[‘A breathy hooting or honking call uttered by a chimpanzee, typically in a series rising in a screaming crescendo and tailing off with quieter calls; a series of such calls.’]

Pronunciation:Brit. /ˈpantˌhuːt/, U.S. /ˈpæntˌhut/

Etymology: < pantn.1 + hootn.1

A breathy hooting or honking call uttered by a chimpanzee, typically in a series rising in a screaming crescendo and tailing off with quieter calls; a series of such calls.

1968J. van Lawick-Goodall in Animal Behaviour Monogr.1 270/1 It is..possible to recognize each individual from a distance when he utters ‘pant hoots’.

1985Sci. Amer. June 88/2 Some of the most striking examples of cooperative behaviour among male chimpanzees are based on the vocal signals known as pant-hoots.

1994New Scientist 4 June 33/3 At first, the pant-hoot was thought to be a group cohesion call... But in 1989, the primatologist Adam Clark..discovered that group cohesion or food were not always the point. Instead, males seemed to be communicating something to each other.